Dr. Kirkwood received his medical degree in 1973 from Yale University and completed postgraduate work at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Center at Harvard University. He joined the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute in 1986 as director of the Melanoma Center and as professor and chief of the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Dr. Kirkwood’s research has focused on melanoma, a cancer of rising incidence that kills more than 8,500 people in the United States each year. Under Dr. Kirkwood’s direction, the Melanoma Center has developed multiple new effective treatments for this disease. Dr. Kirkwood has led several hundred clinical trials of cytokines, antibodies, targeted therapies, immune cells, and vaccines as well as natural substances, to spur the body’s own immune system to recognize and destroy melanoma or prevent its development.
He has received international acclaim for pioneering work with immunological and targeted treatments for melanoma. He led the first trial to yield an FDA-approved adjuvant, (additional) therapy for patients with high risk of recurrence after surgery in 1995. He has led a series of subsequent adjuvant studies including the most recently FDA -approved adjuvant therapy in 2023.
Dr. Kirkwood conducts basic research on the molecular and biological changes that moles undergo as they transform into melanoma. These have enabled earlier detection and prevention of this cancer—and he is currently leading the first national multicenter prevention therapy trial for melanoma.
